University Partners

For more than a decade, Northwestern has built relationships and affiliations with a wide variety of healthcare organizations, social service agencies, specialty care providers, academic institutions, international and corporate partners. We continue to forge strategic relationships to advance and promote natural approaches to health through education, research, clinical services and community engagement.

Northwestern’s work is supported by financial and in-kind contributions that have enabled us to expand our facilities, strengthen the quality of our academic and research programs, and provide unique clinical experiences for our students.

Clinical Partners

We have enhanced the clinical experiences we provide our students and the integrated care provided to patients through our partnerships in health care and higher education.

Beginning in 2000, Northwestern established affiliations with a variety of hospitals, social service agencies, specialty care providers and academic institutions.

Hospitals

Penny George Institute for Health and Healing

The Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital provides complementary therapies and integrative medicine. In addition to testing new models of care, the institute has been providing hospital-based clinical experiences for students in Northwestern's College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and School of Massage Therapy since 2005.

Regions Hospital

Regions Hospital is a Level 1 trauma center and 454-bed nonprofit hospital in St. Paul where Northwestern students provide massage therapy to inpatients and to outpatients receiving infusion therapy.

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview

Social Service Agencies

Minneapolis Harbor Light Center

In addition to providing emergency housing, substance abuse treatment programs and free daily meals to hundreds of homeless clients, the Salvation Army Harbor Light Center in Minneapolis provides space for one of the University's clinics - the Salvation Army Harbor Light Natural Care Center. Our student interns and faculty from the College of Chiropractic and College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine provide care to men and women who would otherwise be unable to receive this type of care. Students gain valuable experience treating patients with a wide range of clinical issues and who face multiple socioeconomic challenges, including homelessness, poverty and chemically dependency.

Pathways Health Crisis Resource Center

Pathways Health Crisis Resource Center is a non-profit organization in Uptown Minneapolis that offers complementary healing services designed specifically for people affected by life-threatening illnesses. Pathways participants seek healing for their body, mind and spirit by exploring therapies that complement conventional Western medical treatments. Students from Northwestern's College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine gain experience providing care to adults facing serious health conditions.

Pathways services are available for registered, approved participants only. For information on how to register, visit Becoming a Participant.

Pillsbury House Integrated Health Clinic

Pillsbury House is one of four inner-city Minneapolis neighborhood centers operated by the non-profit organization Pillsbury United Communities. With other academic ad clinical partners, the University operates a unique clinic at Pillsbury House in Minneapolis for patients with low incomes or who lack health insurance. Our students treat a range of clinical problems including musculoskeletal pain, diabetes-related complications, digestive conditions and gynecological issues in patients who face social and economic inequities. Learn more about the Pillsbury House Integrated Health Clinic.

The Aliveness Project

Faculty and students from Northwestern's College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine provide care to patients at the Aliveness Project. Along with a small staff and volunteers, this non-profit agency has been providing support and direct services to the HIV/AIDS community since 1985. The Aliveness Project assists patients in focusing on self-empowerment while facing their daily struggle with this life-threatening illness. Our students use acupuncture and Chinese herbs to treat AIDS complications such as fatigue. insomnia, skin infections, peripheral neuropathy, urogenital conditions and gastrointestinal problems.

Specialty Care Providers

Courage-Kenny Rehabilitation Institute

Courage-Kenny Rehabilitation Institute is a nationally-recognized, non-profit rehabilitation center serving patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, and other conditions causing acute and chronic disability. Through a long-standing partnership with Courage-Kenny, acupuncture and Oriental medicine students from Northwestern provide care to patients in the inpatient rehabilitation program.

In this integrative healthcare setting, our students work alongside medical doctors, nurses and rehabilitation professionals. Students assist patients in restoring function by providing hands-on acupuncture treatments for paralytic disorders.

Minnesota Oncology

Since 2007, Northwestern’s partnership with Minnesota Oncology has provided opportunities for massage therapy students to provide care to patients undergoing cancer treatment at the Virginia Piper Cancer Institute located on the campus of Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Volunteers of America – Edina Care and Rehabilitation Center

A research project with Volunteers of America-Minnesota initiated in 2008 established a partnership which has provided clinical internship opportunities for students of Northwestern’s College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Our students provide acupuncture treatments to geriatric patients, focusing on musculoskeletal problems, insomnia, anxiety and depression.

Academic Partners

University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality and Healing

The Center for Spirituality and Healing is a partner with the University in a number of endeavors. Each year, the center coordinates opportunities for first and second year medical school students to visit Northwestern to learn about chiropractic, Oriental medicine and massage therapy. The center also collaborates on a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine funded research education project with Northwestern's Wolfe-Harris Center for Clinical Studies.

International Partners

La Clínica de la Mariposa

La Clínica de la Mariposa offers a service-learning healthcare internship in central Costa Rica in partnership with Santé, Inc. Our students and faculty travel to Costa Rica three times year to provide chiropractic, massage therapy and acupuncture services to an underserved population throughout several communities. Patients receive care at the clinic for free. For more information, visit La Clínica de la Mariposa.

Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China operates one of the largest traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in the world. Northwestern established a relationship with Tianjin University in 2003, providing acupuncture and Oriental medicine students the opportunity to practice clinical observation in the East. In 2011, the relationship expanded to include chiropractic students, who can observe firsthand, traditional Chinese medicine culture and treatment of spinal conditions.

Business Partners

Contributions from the following business partners provide exceptional, sustaining support to the University.

BackChart, LLC

BackChart® COS (Chiropractic Office Solution) is a web-based electronic health record (EHR) that has the capability to handle all the core business aspects - from scheduling appointments to the scrubbing of billable procedures. Notable features include its cross platform web-browser based interface, quality assurance safeguards, outcomes measurement reporting and Clinical WorkFlow™.

Northwestern Health Sciences University selected BackChart® for the EHR that will be implemented in our University clinics. As part of the agreement and BackChart®’s commitment to the growth of chiropractic and other natural health care professions, Northwestern graduates will receive fully-paid, royalty-free licensure to use BackChart® COS during their first year following graduation.

Biofreeze/Hygenic Performance Health, Inc.

Biofreeze products are widely used by chiropractic doctors and other healthcare professionals to help relieve pain and facilitate recovery from muscle strains. Biofreeze is a subsidiary of Hygenic Performance Health, Inc. based in Akron, Ohio. Hygenic Performance Health also manufactures Thera-Band exercise tubing, balance boards and other products widely used by chiropractic doctors and physical therapists.

In 2008, Hygenic Performance Health provided substantial financial support and products to Northwestern's health clinics and the Wolfe-Harris Center for Clinical Studies research program.

Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI)

In 2008, CDI funded the construction of a technology-enhanced instructional lab on Northwestern's campus that has become an invaluable academic resource for both students and faculty.

Since it was founded in 1981 by Kenneth Heithoff, MD, the Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI) has grown to become a national network of 50 imaging centers nationwide. There are 17 locations in Minnesota, including 2 that offer Open Upright™ MRI to the patients of chiropractic doctors and other healthcare providers through a business partnership with the University.

The radiologists of CDI respect and work closely with the chiropractic profession and are nationally recognized for their expertise in spine, neurological, musculoskeletal, body, and cardiac imaging.

Erchonia Corporation

Erchonia Corporation is a world leader in medical laser and cosmetic laser products. They offer the best Low Level Laser Therapy (3LT™) equipment available, as well as information regarding this emerging field of medical technology.

Since its start in 1996, Erchonia Corporation has been working to advance the field of laser therapy by acting as independent researcher and product developer and by obtaining official validation from the scientific and medical community. In January of 2002, Erchonia's low-level laser was the first one to be granted market clearance by the Food and Drug Administration.

Foot Levelers, Inc.

In addition to becoming the leading provider of custom-made Spinal Pelvic Stabilizers and related healthcare products, Foot Levelers has a remarkable history of support to many chiropractic academic institutions. The philanthropic legacy of the company's founder, Monte H. Greenawalt, DC, DABCO, continues today under the leadership of his son, Kent Greenawalt.

The Greenawalt's have been supporting Northwestern since the early 1980s and their gift in 2006 funded construction of a new library for the University.

Nutrition Dynamics, Inc.

For over 30 years, Nutrition Dynamics has provided healthcare professionals with high-quality nutritional formulas and support to use the formulas therapeutically.

In order to ensure proper use of our high-quality nutritional supplements, Nutri-Dyn only sells to licensed healthcare practitioners and is committed to supporting the educational needs of different types of practitioners. Bringing in nationally and internationally recognized opinion-leader speakers to share their clinical experiences and teach their colleagues the technical tools they need to implement nutrition in their practice is just one of the many ways in which this is accomplished.

Nutrition Dynamics is among the top sellers of nutritional supplements at Northwestern's Bookstore and a generous supporter of the University.

Standard Process Inc.

Since 1929, Standard Process has been producing high-quality whole foods supplements, originating from organic farming methods and animal tissue extracts, that have helped millions of patients. The company has earned wide respect within the chiropractic profession and throughout the nutritional supplement industry.

The company's President, Charles DuBois, first became interested in the nutritional supplement industry when he started his career at Standard Process in 1983, hand-weeding beet fields on the company farm.

In 2007, as Northwestern was embarking on a major building expansion, Mr. DuBois provided funding for construction of the Standard Process Healing Garden on the campus of the University.